Lot Essay
The present pictures are highly characteristic of the work of José Camarón y Boronat. They exhibit the same sense of controlled movement, compositional equilibrium, elegant elongated figures and light rococo palette as may be found in comparable works such as the Romaría and Parejas en un parque in the Prado Museum, Madrid, and the Majos bailando (whereabouts unknown; see A. Espinós Diáz, Dos lienzos de José Camarón y Boronat en el Museo del Prado, Boletin del Museo del Prado, III, no. 9, Sept.-Dec. 1988, figs. 1 and 5).
The subject matter, small-scale format and delicate treatment made such pictures highly popular with wealthy Spanish collectors of the period. Together with artists such as the Bayeu brothers, Castillo, Paret y Alcazar, Carnicero and, most noteably, Goya, Boronat was instrumental in developing a peculiarly Spanish style of fêtes galantes in the second half of the eighteenth century. Boronat's personal contribution to this flowering of the Spanish rococo is clearly recorded through the commercial success of his works, his prominent position of the Nueva Academia Valenciana de San Carlos, and by the praise of contemporary biographers and commentators. Thus, Orellana, amongst others, praised Boronat's 'sobre todo para pinturas festivas damicelas, máscaras y figuras de gracejo donayre y donaza composición, goza dicho Profesor de un examen extraordinario...' (Orellana, Biografia pictórica valenciana o Vida de los Pintores Arquitectos escultores y grabadores valencianos, ed. Xavier de Salas, Valencia, 1967, p. 400).
This lot is sold with a photocopy of a letter from José Gudiol, dated 12 February 1975, confirming the attribution to Camarón.
The subject matter, small-scale format and delicate treatment made such pictures highly popular with wealthy Spanish collectors of the period. Together with artists such as the Bayeu brothers, Castillo, Paret y Alcazar, Carnicero and, most noteably, Goya, Boronat was instrumental in developing a peculiarly Spanish style of fêtes galantes in the second half of the eighteenth century. Boronat's personal contribution to this flowering of the Spanish rococo is clearly recorded through the commercial success of his works, his prominent position of the Nueva Academia Valenciana de San Carlos, and by the praise of contemporary biographers and commentators. Thus, Orellana, amongst others, praised Boronat's 'sobre todo para pinturas festivas damicelas, máscaras y figuras de gracejo donayre y donaza composición, goza dicho Profesor de un examen extraordinario...' (Orellana, Biografia pictórica valenciana o Vida de los Pintores Arquitectos escultores y grabadores valencianos, ed. Xavier de Salas, Valencia, 1967, p. 400).
This lot is sold with a photocopy of a letter from José Gudiol, dated 12 February 1975, confirming the attribution to Camarón.